Bernard Schoenburg: Manar-McElroy race in 48th Senate District heats up

The race for the new 48th Senate District has gotten noticeably more intense, with Democratic Macoupin County Board Chairman ANDY MANAR taking on the record of Republican Decatur Mayor MIKE McELROY, and McElroy’s campaign trying to link Manar to former Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH.

The race for the new 48th Senate District has gotten noticeably more intense, with Democratic Macoupin County Board Chairman ANDY MANAR taking on the record of Republican Decatur Mayor MIKE McELROY, and McElroy’s campaign trying to link Manar to former Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH.

Both sides have taken improper liberties, though the Manar team produced lots of documentation about the specifics cited.

A Manar TV ad accuses McElroy, who has been mayor of Decatur since 2009 and was elected to the city council six years earlier, of ushering in “wasteful spending, higher taxes.”

“He increased spending by 37 percent,” Manar’s ad says in part. “Facing budget deficits, McElroy charged taxpayers for his home internet and raised his city manager’s pay to $130,000.”

That ad shows pictures of what looked like big stories in the Decatur Herald & Review, complete with headlines.

GARY SAWYER, the editor of that newspaper, wrote a column pointing out that the headlines shown on screen never actually appeared in the newspaper. For example, Sawyer said, the home internet payments to council members “was one paragraph at the end of a story about a council discussion of reimbursement for travel expenses.”

Manar said he didn’t think phony headlines were deceptive. But I agree with Sawyer that this should not be done.

“The issues here are the decisions that he made as an elected official for the city of Decatur,” Manar responded.

The 37 percent? Manar’s campaign said it resulted from growth in Decatur city budgets of just under $95.6 million in a 2007-08 city budget recap to net expenses of nearly $131.6 million in the budget for 2012-13.

The McElroy campaign responds that McElroy didn’t become mayor until 2009. But the Manar campaign is also counting votes and budgets when he was on the city council.

The increases in spending include infrastructure projects that were paid for with grants and local tax increment financing funds, and did not impact the city’s general fund, said HELEN ALBERT, McElroy’s campaign manager.

“Ironically, the infrastructure projects that Manar takes issue with are vital to keeping Decatur attractive to potential new employers and holding on to the ones that Decatur currently has,” she said.

“He voted to increase spending as both a council member and a mayor, that’s a fact,” said SAM STRAIN, Manar’s campaign manager. “The problem here is that his campaign for the Senate is directly contradicting his public record as an elected official.”

McElroy also said the $44 a month he received to pay for home internet was pushed by a former city manager who sought to have the city go paperless, although he concedes the stipend went on “probably longer than it should have.” McElroy said he stopped getting those payments about six months ago.

Page 2 of 3 - McElroy is paid $8,000 a year in his part-time mayor’s job. The current city manager, former Sangamon County administrator RYAN McCRADY, has been with the city since 2008. He makes $139,050 annually.

The Manar ad also talks about how, since he has been head of Macoupin County government, the county board reduced its size from 27 to 18 members and passed a pay cut that will take effect next term (the pay of a public official can’t be reduced during his or her term under the state constitution). Manar now makes $850 a month in his county job.

McElroy similarly has been advertising about his job as Decatur mayor, including balancing the city’s budget four years in a row. However, a recent McElroy ad digs at Manar for his work at the state Senate. Before he was chief of staff to Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago, Manar was appropriations director for then-Senate President EMIL JONES JR., D-Chicago.

Because Jones was an ally of disgraced Blagojevich, the McElroy campaign has felt justified to create an ad, complete with a bouncing Manar head on a stick and a laugh track, calling Manar “Blago’s Senate budget boss” and saying he “wrote the budgets full of massive spending and massive borrowing....”

Albert responded that, “The ad does not say Manar worked for Blagojevich. But it does clearly reference Andy Manar’s work as the budget director ... for the people who worked hand in hand with Rod Blagojevich for nearly four years.”

But the ad sure makes it look like Manar worked for Blagojevich, which he didn’t.

Manar says his ads are very different from McElroy’s, in that “I’m pointing out votes that he took as a public official. We cite all of our sources in our ad.”

“The (Senate) appropriations director doesn’t debate budgets on the floor of the Senate,” Manar added. “I have never taken a vote in the General Assembly.

“The idea that I somehow ... was in control of spending during the Blagojevich years is complete nonsense,” he said.

“And putting my head on a Popsicle stick really is not the kind of conversation we should be having right now.”

McElroy also thinks Manar’s ads are unfair to him with “sensationalism on different things.” He added: “I hoped to make this as civil as possible.”

McElroy has raised about $300,000, Albert said. Strain said Manar has raised more than $946,000, including in-kind donations, since last summer.

The new 48th takes in part of Springfield, including the medical district and east side and, at one point, as far west as MacArthur Boulevard. It also includes all or parts of Montgomery, Macoupin, Christian, Macon and Madison counties.

Kinnaman moves to state

Page 3 of 3 -

MARK KINNAMAN has left a job as manager of the criminal division of the Sangamon County circuit clerk’s office to join the state comptroller’s office for higher pay.

Kinnaman, 52, had been with the state for more than 15 years before his term appointment with correctional industries was not renewed by Blagojevich. He joined the office of Circuit Clerk Tony Libri in 2003. He was making about $51,600 per year at the county. Kinnman’s new job, which began Sept. 17, is as program manager with Comptroller JUDY BAAR TOPINKA’s government and community affairs division at $62,000 annually.

BRAD HAHN, spokesman for Topinka, said the governor in August signed legislation allowing circuit clerks to participate in the state’s local debt-recovery program, in which the state enters into a partnership to collect unpaid debts for local entities. The comptroller’s office administers the program.

“Mark was brought on to raise awareness of the opportunity with clerks from around the state and work with them on enrollment,” Hahn said. “Given his familiarity and experience with the clerk of court offices, it was a perfect fit.”

Kinnaman, who made periodic donations to Libri that totaled more than $1,300, donated $200 to Topinka in 2010 and $500 more on June 29.

Hahn said the donations had “no relation” to Kinnaman getting the job, and Topinka doesn’t take contributions from her employees.

Bernard Schoenburg is political columnist for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached at 788-1540 or follow him via twitter.com/bschoenburg. His email address is bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.